Do we really need privacy anymore?

We SAY we value our privacy, and yet we give it up all over the place. I was recently in the market for a guitar amp, and now, two weeks after I bought it, I find ads for guitar amps and guitar-related product in the sidebar all over the place in sites totally unrelated to each other and having nothing much at all to do with music.

If you really valued privacy, you wouldn't be on Facebook because they seem to be working non-stop to find out things about you and to help their advertisers find out about you. They introduce security updates and other changes with privacy implications so regularly that they've virtually trained us not to look them over.

Outdoors, while it's not quite as bad as it is in the UK, we are under surveillance a good deal of the time, and one regularly hears on the evening news about crimes solved via some surveillance camera or other. We should be thinking, "If the camera saw them, has it ever seen ME?" but we don't.

While, under the law, there's no privacy when you're in public, a lot of us resent the idea that some person can see us but we can't see them, and that often are activities aren't just being observed but are being recorded.

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I was recently in the market for a guitar amp, and now, two weeks after I bought it, I find ads for guitar amps and guitar-related product in the sidebar all over the place in sites totally unrelated to each other and having nothing much at all to do with music.

Adblockers only block ads. Most sites - and we frequent extremely few sites, 100 sites having around 99.99% of all internet traffic - will embed cookies which track your movements. I sometimes have fun with the airline i often use which does this; I delete their cookies the prices on the tickets I want plummet.

Now as for the topic itself, yes we do need privacy. But the problem isn't about the casual internet user. I too get pissed off when some random Joe Nobody bitches about some website customizing his ads, or when they ask him for personal details etc.

"Oh they keep track of what I buy and I hear facebook sells my information to third parties we have no privacy!!!" So what? Google doesn't care about the black batman dildo or the laptop batteries you ordered. Nobody cares. People overestimate their worth. If you walked up to someone on the street and started telling them about your interests and details, they'd tell you to fuck off. Why do people think that when it's online, somehow the world is after them?

Aside from that however, privacy is crucial to our freedom. Read any news and you'll see that more and more companies and government cry for more government intervention on the internet.

They'll use any deceitful methods and lies to try and pry their greasy molesting fingers into the internet.

Whatever. There are always some cover up excuses, which all range from the cliche think-of-the-children to the piracy bullshit.

The true message behind it is "let us control you!" And I don't want that. Nobody does. First they'll push laws to make it easier for the government to spy on its people, and next thing you know you'll be arrested for watching gay porn online.

That being said, yes, people on facebook and the like are retarded. Especially those who don't even know how to use it properly and compromise their privacy.

In a shocking revelation, what people say they want ≠ what they actually want.

People want ease and convenience, not remembering 50 passwords for sites they sign up for, having big brother protection of CCTV, pay less taxes, rely on automated surveillance, use money they don't have on credit cards, and so forth.

To a large degree it is possible to not be trackable, just move off-grid, but this demands a lot of extra work compared to those who accept window peeping into their lives. Most people, myself included, are just too damned lazy to do anything like that, and since we generally have nothing too bad to hide we don't care.

I think an individual's level of personal privacy is their own responsibility. If you are putting yourself out there all the time without regard for who can see it, then it is your personal choice to forfeit your privacy. True, when you are out in public you have to be aware that you are most likely under surveillance all (or a lot of) the time and there is little you can do about that, save for never leaving your house or wearing a very convincing disguise; simply going out into the world is and invasion of your privacy, in a way, because there is usually other people around.

If you feel the need to have privacy, then you should live your life in a more private way. If you find out that your creepy neighbor has been filming you in the loo, by all means, call the cops and let them deal with it! But if you're expecting 100% privacy in everything you do, then you are delusional because it's never going to happen.

If you find out that your creepy neighbor has been filming you in the loo, by all means, call the cops and let them deal with it!

Depends on local laws, but you may find there's little you can do about your neighbor filming you in the loo from inside his house (standing outside your window to watch you on your property is a different matter and would certainly be illegal almost anywhere). You should have pulled the blinds. Anything it's legal for him to see from his windows or even from his yard it's going to be legal for him to record in some way, if its for his own use.

Now publishing or distributing the image(s) is another matter entirely. Normally—unless your loo usage is newsworthy, which is a separate and special case—that would require a release and some arrangement for compensating you.

Privacy is something we all have a need of. On google you can set your privacy level. Yes you get ads occasionally when you buy stuff. My objection is when companies use your very personal information. such as Your income, area you live, your very identity. People often leave their personal information on sites without really thinking about it. Personal responsibility comes into play don't put anything on the web you don't want people to know. Personally I think computers should require double security.something you have and something you know.